Chapter 9
Kenpachi: My next sparring partner. She was made for the eleventh division.
Yumichika: Beautifully strong.
Tatsuki watched with marginal interest as two seated officers sparred. Although there ere no 'allocated' sparring rooms this one was strictly eleventh division; apparently most of the other shinigami were either too scared or too tired of the eleventh division shinigami and generally kept out of their way.
She found herself quickly becoming bored of the eleventh division shinigami; they were made chiefly of brawn and were unnecessarily loud. "Boring, isn't it?" Tatsuki nodded at Yumichika, one of the few shinigami in the eleventh division she was yet to get tired of. He had practically dragged her to the sparring room insisting that she had to come today.
All she really wanted was to sleep in until the sun began to set.
Her eyes widened when she felt a massive spirit energy attempting to push down on her, all the pressure did was to make her restless and excited. She noticed the smile playing on Yumichika's lips. The doors flew open and a tall man with spiky hair and an eye patch stepped inside.
"You set me up." She hissed at Yumichika.
"I have no idea what you are speaking of." He said gently as he tightened his grip on her wrist; preventing her from running away.
The captain of the eleventh division could already feel the fear of the other shinigami before he entered the dojo. He found it amusing to walk into the dojo and scare those practicing. At least once a week, he would walk into the dojo and say how pathetic it was that no one was brave enough to spar with him. He wasn't a bully or anything but things got boring in seretei – there would be major trouble that required the attention of captains only once every hundred years or so. It was very understandable that someone like him; who was born to fight, would get bored. Once in a while he would get a good laugh from seeing some of the shinigami running from Yachiru but that was about it. As a way to quell a small part of his boredom, after declaring those sparring pathetic he would ask the smallest or most frightened looking shinigami to spar with him; they would usually scream and run away, some times they passed out on the spot. There would always be the shinigami who would snigger, the confident one who loved to make fun of the weaker ones. He would then turn his attention to that shinigami, and without fail, the person would stutter in pure fear, run away in pure fear or start mumbling incomprehensible nonsense.
"Let me guess." Kenpachi said in a bored tone, "all of you are still too scared to spar with me."
"She'll spar with you." Yumichika said quickly. The captain turned his attention to Tatsuki and grinned,
"You, lets fight."
She rose to her feet and rested her practice sword confidently on her left shoulder. She placed her right hand on her right hip and cocked her head slightly to the right,
"Do I really have to?" she asked in an unenthusiastic tone.
Kenpachi's grin widened. There was no way under the sun she would not end up in the eleventh division. A freshly graduated shinigami who managed to be so calm and relaxed in her presence despite his intimidating appearance and spirit energy? Tch, she was made for the eleventh division.
Soi Fon was not going to get this one.
The dojo was completely silent – save, the sound of the two wooden swords clashing.
Tatsuki leapt out of the way as Kenpachi's sword came down.
She spun round and tried to hit him in the side.
He blocked it.
She placed her sword under his and flipped it up.
This forced his arm to move upwards and the captain grinned; she was far stronger than he could imagine; most seated officers could not forcefully move him hand.
"If I fought as haphazardly as you I would hide my face in shame." She said as she jabbed his side with her elbow and swung her arm out.
The whole dojo would have become more silent if it were possible; she had successfully landed a hit on Zaraki Kenpachi (and insulted his skill), and she had not received that many. Instantly Zaraki knew he and the captain of the second division were going to have a little battle over this one.
The next move was so swift that no one in the bewildered audience caught it. All they saw was the Tatuski's sword blocking Zaraki's from coming into contact with her arm.
"I already know that lesson." She smirked, "never relax until the battle the over."
Zaraki pushed against her sword and due to her being so small and light she was pushed backwards.
"True you fight very technically correct and although erratic rather organized but we fight to win not for aesthetic purposes." Zaraki said as she careened through the air.
Most people would have fallen into an ungraceful heap but Tatsuki had long learnt to use what others saw as drawbacks to her advantage. While she was alive she was the smallest on her judo team – she was also the most evasive. That trait had served her well in the shinigami academy and was going to help her yet again.
She knew she was very light so she had learnt to land in different positions that would be an advantage to her. Although her greatest advantage had to be the stereotypical minds of people, she had come to realize that even in seretei people were boxed up into groups;
The smaller you are the weaker you are.
The stronger you are the more you suck at kido spells and shunpo.
The better you are at healing kidos the weaker you were.
She smirked as she was pushed back. Landing in a crouch, she shunpoed (sp?) in front of the captain of the eleventh division, she moved so fast he was barely able to follow her movements.
"Tell that to Mr. Eyelashes over there." She said as she struck him in the side with all her might.
Her wooden sword shattered. Zaraki had managed to bring his sword down on her right shoulder when a few seconds after she had struck him; while she was still dazed by the broken sword. But Tatsuki still managed to drop her shoulder and move a few steps back, the greatly reduced the effect.
Zaraki along with the audience was stunned speechless. Zaraki had gone very easy on her; after all it was training and she was not even a seated officer but her had not relaxed to the extent where he believed she could tie, possibly beat him – perhaps a lieutenant could, or a third seat, but not any one lower – especially a fresh shinigami academy graduate.
Considering the relative ease with which she had gone through this sparring session he could, in a real battle, easily see her pulling an 'Ichigo' i.e. drawing on some unknown force and defeating him.
Oh, he had found his new sparring partner.
She was busy looking at her broken sword when she heard someone declare, "You fought well but you lost." Her head shot up.
"Who said that?" she bristled; she knew the eleventh division captain was going way easy on her but that did not change the fact that she had not lost.
"I did." A well-built man stood up. She turned murderous eyes to him
"Bullshit." She replied, "If it were my zanpaktou I would have sliced him like paper."
"You can't cut my captain." He said. "In a real battle you would be too scared."
"Oh, as scared as you were when he walked in?!" she replied haughtily. The man frowned; it was his dream to defeat Zaraki Kenpachi – this tiny shinigami graduate had no right to step above him; he was yet to challenge the captain of the eleventh division, or a lieutenant to a sparring match and she just waltzed in and beat Zaraki?
"You lost, face it." The man said.
"It was a tie." Zaraki announced.
She ignored the captain; her attention was focused on the man. She grabbed a sword from one of a grinning Yumichika, pointing it at the man she yelled,
"Come over here and let me show you what losing looks like." The man planned to ignore her but the captain said,
"You should battle her."
She was small but the man was still scared of her although her perceived smaller people to be weaker but considering what she had jut done he was not quick to end up in critical condition; all he could do was mumble unintelligibly.
"Ok, let's go celebrate your victory." Yumichika grinned as he rose to his feet.
"I still remember you set me up asshole." He grinned nervously at her words.
"Hey but it's all fun and games… right? Plus I knew you pass so no hard feelings… right?
"I'm going back to sleep." She stated.
She flung the wooden sword back at Yumichika and walked out.
A/N: Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. I know this chapter isn't 'that' (I'm still looking for the word) but I kinda had to rush it because I'm going on vacation and don't know when I'll be able to update next. .
Oh and I found story to read while on vacation; My Immortal it's a Harry Potter fanfiction that'll make you laugh so hard. (it got 10,000 reviews)
